


The war is over

by legolastariel



Category: The Walking Dead (TV)
Genre: M/M, POV Rick Grimes, first person POV
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-08
Updated: 2016-11-08
Packaged: 2018-08-29 21:44:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,096
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8506681
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/legolastariel/pseuds/legolastariel
Summary: The war is over. After months of fighting and countless casulties on either side, it’s finally over. The Saviors are defeated.
  
  
  
    It’s Negan’s turn to kneel now and so he does, right in front of me, on that clearing in the woods where he started this war all those months ago without even being aware of it. When he killed Glenn. And Abraham. Took Daryl away from me. That’s when he signed his death sentence. 
  

  Those are Rick's thoughts after the war against the Saviors is over and Negan is about to get what he deserves. Rick refects on the events, on what they did to him and Daryl and what it all meant for the both of them.





	

**Author's Note:**

> I'd pay money for the war to end like that on the show - with Negan dying and Rick and Daryl being the couple they're supposed to be. But I'm not holding my breath.
> 
> Thanks to staceykc for betaing this story for me. 
> 
> I hope you like it. Please let me know what you think.

**The war is over**  


 

The war is over. After months of fighting and countless casulties on either side, it’s finally over. The Saviors are defeated.

I wonder, if our freedom and the satisfaction of taking revenge, justifies all the people we’ve lost, but I guess victory is never achieved without a blood price to be paid first. We have all suffered. We have all lost. But in the long run it will be worth it, because the survivors can breathe freely again.  
From now on, we will provide for ourselves again and not for Negan. We are our own masters once more.

Alone neither one of us would have succeeded, but together, as a unity Alexandria, the Hilltop and the Kingdom managed to achieve the impossible, not least of all thanks to lots of help from inside the Sanctuary.

There have been countless men like Negan throughout history, who thought they could rule and retain their power, if only they suppressed and terrorized people enough, instilled fear and hopelessness in their hearts. In the end, all of those dictators fell, because people can only be pushed so far and no one is willing to endure slavery, captivity and terror forever.   
People need someone to look up to, someone to follow. Someone they trust and respect, maybe even love. Anything else will lead to revolution. Which is exactly what happened.   
The three communities stood as one, unwilling to take Negan’s dominion any longer and we got help from inside the Sanctuary, from many of Negan’s followers, who suffered him only because they were afraid, not because they believed in him.

It’s Negan’s turn to kneel now and so he does, right in front of me, on that clearing in the woods where he started this war all those months ago without even being aware of it. When he killed Glenn. And Abraham. Took Daryl away from me. That’s when he signed his death sentence.

Daryl is right here by my side. Just like he’s been for the past three years, but things have changed between us. Sometimes we need to lose the most important thing in our life to have us realize just how much it really meant.   
When Negan took Daryl captive and said “He’s mine now”, something snapped deep inside of me. I remember the look in Daryl’s eyes as though it happened only yesterday. He looked at me as though we were seeing each other for the very last time and the mere thought was tearing him apart. And I can still feel this horrible feeling of loss, the separation anxiety and urge to scream, to yell at Negan “No, he’s mine. He always was and will always be. You can’t have him!”

Daryl – my right hand man, my best friend, the other half of me, the love of my life.   
I know, what Negan did to him. All of it. The way he tortured and humiliated him, tried to break him and even almost succeeded. Almost. 

There have been way too many nights since then that I woke to Daryl tossing and turning next to me, crying in his sleep and reliving Negan’s horrors. We all do that every now and again. He held me just as many times, when I woke up screaming to nightmares of me chopping off my son’s arm or watching everyone I love, Daryl first of all, being beaten to death by Lucille. 

Lucille. She weighs heavy in my hands, but it’s a familiar feel. Negan made me hold her before, knowing only too well how terrifying it would be to touch the weapon that killed two of my family. How many lives did he take with it? How many people out there have to live with the picture in their mind of someone close to them being killed like that?   
It’s gonna end right here and now. Negan himself will have the honor to be Lucille’s last victim. 

         “Remember what I said to you back then?” 

I ask him, but he doesn’t look at me, doesn’t answer. So I lift his chin with the tip of the bat, the barbed wire causing several bloody scratches on his skin. 

         “Speak when you’re spoken to. Wasn’t that one of the rules?” 

He looks up now, a smile tugging at the corners of his mouth. But he’s still silent. I know, he won’t answer me, because no matter what he does or says, the outcome will be the same. He will die. 

         “I will kill you, that’s what I said. What I _promised_. And I’m a man of my word, too. There’s been more than one prick in the past screwing with me and my family and I promised the same thing to all of them. Not one is still alive today. And neither will you in a few minutes.”

The smile on his face widens.

         “I’ll be damned”, he speaks after all, “you’re looking at me the same damn way again.”

         “Hurts, doesn’t it? You’ve been the king of shit for so long and now it’s all taken away from you.”

He’s laughing now.

         “I see, you did listen after all. Maybe you’ve learned a few helpful lessons then. Like how quickly it can all be over. How fast you can lose all that you love.”

I cast a glance to Daryl out of impulse and see him looking back at me with an incredibly soothing calmness in his eyes, while he barely noticable shakes his head.

         _“No, yer not gonna lose me. I’m right here and I ain’t going nowhere without ya ever again.”_

         “There are things that can never be lost”, Daryl says mystically to Negan, before his eyes narrow further and he adds gumpily: “And just so ya know – ma name's _still_ Daryl, ya prick.”

I can’t help smiling about that. Shortly after he became our most valued ally, Dwight told me about Daryl’s captivity and how Negan tried to break him. Told me about how Negan had people not only kneel to him, but also deny their own identity, have them call themselves Negan as well. And how Daryl wouldn’t, although that could have cost him his life.  
I questioned Daryl about it, not really expecting an answer, but then he said, he just couldn’t deny who he was, because if he had given in, Daryl Dixon would have become nobody again, nothing. And at that point being himself was all he had left and Negan wasn’t going to take that away from him, too.

         _“I ‘s thinking of you”,_ he then added softly, _“how ya used ta turn to me for advice and support and, ya know, thought I was more than just … nobody. Ya gave Daryl Dixon a value, a meaning, a place in life. Yer opinion counts, whatever ya say, goes. So I couldn’t let that bastard take it all away and prove ya wrong. I hadda stay Daryl – for you.”_

I think I never loved him more than in that moment. Never was more proud of him. I was right to choose that man to be the one to share my life, however long it’s gonna be. But as long as we fight side by side and manage to put bastards like Negan in their place, chances of growing old together are … well, they are _there._

          “I really do like him”, Negan sneers, pointing at Daryl. “In time, I woulda tamed him, too.”

I react instantly, press the bat to his throat which draws a choking sound, while fury boils up inside of me. 

         “Rick.” Daryl places a soothing hand on my arm and that in addition to the well-known calming inflection in his deep voice, has the anger subside instantly. 

He's always known how to keep me balanced, how to keep my feet on the ground. Where would I be without him? _What_ would I be without him?

         “When he killed Glenn and Abraham here, ‘twasn’t because he was angry. Not just an impulse. He meant ta teach us he was the boss, wanted ta scare us enough to give in ta his demands.” He nods at Lucille. “Ya shouldn’t do this.”

My head whips around to him.

         “What? You want me to let him go? After all he’s done?”

         “No.” Daryl places his hands on my shoulders and turns me around, so we’re standing face to face, our eyes firmly locked. I could drown in his eyes every day anew.   
         “No, we ain’t letting him go. Just sayin’ _you_ shouldn’t do it. Rage and hate ain’t good enough reasons. That’s cheap. Ain’t us. We should send the message right back. That he ain’t the boss. That no one is in the long run, if they try ta _force_ us ta do anything. That we ain’t afraid ‘a nothing, as long as we stand together.”  

His hands move from my shoulder to my head as he gently cups my face.

         “Glenn and Abraham, they died for a lie. For a plan that didn’t work out. For a message we chose to ignore. So ‘s only right, if ya let the girls send our message right back.”

He nods over to Maggie, Sasha and Rosita, who are waiting in the crowd surrounding us. It appears as though the people of Alexandria, the Hilltop and the Kingdom are all here, down to the last person. And maybe they are. This is our victory. Our Independence Day.

For a moment I rest my forehead against Daryl’s, surprised that he doesn’t pull back. He was never too fond of displaying affection in public, but maybe he isn’t the man anymore he was before Negan. Just like I’m sure, I’m not the same Rick Grimes anymore, either.   
There are scars and they will mar us forever, but whatever Negan has put us through – we came out on top. Stronger than before. And looking back I’d say, I gained more than I lost, despite of all the casualties. I’ve got Daryl now. Right here with me. For the rest of my life.

I turn around to Maggie and hold Lucille out to her, casting her a questioning look. She hesitates for a moment, but only a second later Rosita slips her hand into hers from the one side and Sasha from the other, both giving an encouraging squeeze.   
This is a gruesome thing to do and it will bring back lots of painful memories, but they need to do this – to have a closure, to move on.

Surprisingly calm Maggie takes the bat from my hand and I turn around to Negan one last time, shrugging.

         “Lucille seems to be thirsty tonight. She’s a vampire bat, you know.”

I just couldn’t help saying that.

         “Rick.” 

Dary’s voice is right next to me again, accompanied by the slightest shaking of his head.   
The way this man is able to communicate with me never ceases to amaze me. Even the slightest gestures, just a look or a single word is like a beacon in the darkness to me. Sometimes I’m sure, he’s able to read my mind. And when it’s real quiet, in the twilight moments between sleeping and waking, I can _feel_ him right there with me, even if we’re apart. Inside my mind, inside my heart. A part of me. 

He slips his hand into mine and interlaces our fingers, which has me gasp and cast him another surprised glance. Whatever we had to go through, if a few _good_ changes came out of it, it may have been worth it all.   
The moment Maggie clutches the bat crushingly and raises it above her head, with Rosita and Sasha by her side, Daryl tugs gently at my hand and leads me away.   
We don’t need to see this. We’ve seen it before. We know what’s going to happen.   
We’re going to have a closure.

When the first strike is audible behind us, accompanied by the cheering of the crowd, Daryl pulls me behind a tree and looks me deep in the eyes, as though he just wants to drown in them, too, to blind out what’s going on around us. I know, he never stopped blaming himself for Glenn’s death, although none of us, including Maggie, ever did. 

         “The joke isn’t really all that bad, is it?” I try to distract him.

His eyes narrow and anybody else would probably have rolled them right now. He just says “Rick!” once again, before he kisses me ardently.   
Maybe he needs this now to blind out the world. And maybe it’s his way to celebrate our Independence Day.

 


End file.
